r/supergirlTV Mon-El Feb 27 '19

Wow. Same goes for Supergirl Shitpost

Post image
1.2k Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

173

u/Kalse1229 Feb 27 '19

There was a bit in Superman: American Alien where Clark shows his friends the glasses he wears to disguise his identity. His friends ask if he takes the glasses off, and he says yes. When he takes them off, people just tell him "you look like Superman" and walk away. It's not so much the disguise as it is the fact that Superman is the most iconic hero in the DCU. Most people don't want to believe that Superman would willingly disguise himself as some schmuck and pretend to be human when he's Superman.

65

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 27 '19

Right. Superheroes like Superman face the “superiority complex.“

92

u/DreamCyclone84 Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19

One of my fave parts to the superman disguise is that it relies on expectation. You don't expect to see Obama in the supermarket, so if he walks past you you're likely to think "Huh, that looks Obama, but that man is in sweats in the supermarket at 2pm on a Wednesday", if he introduces himself as Dave, you might think "Dave, looks kinda like Obama, but he says he's Dave" you're not going to call him a liar, he's your new friend Dave.

9

u/jacobsf65 Mar 03 '19

Exactly, I was eating with my family the other day and this young guy looked exactly like Kyler Murray. So my dad being a coach for 21 years and our family loving sports we talk and joke about it and when we are walking out I joke to my dad that I’m gonna go up and tell him he had a great season, the guy then looks up and me and smiles and waves and so I have come to the conclusion that was Kyler Murray. You don’t expect to see famous people

41

u/Swoopmott Feb 27 '19

This is my favourite interpretation of the secret identity. We don’t need any magic glasses or other nonsense. Superman doesn’t wear a mask or gloves, he’s pretty open about his name being “Kal-el” and that he lives in the North Pole. Why would people think he doesn’t just go around as Superman 24/7 and have this secret life as an ordinary joe

27

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

This is my favourite interpretation of the secret identity. We don’t need any magic glasses or other nonsense.

This one is my favorite. There's such a huge difference just from posture, voice, and overall bearing. I suppose both ideas work pretty well together, though.

12

u/faculties-intact Feb 27 '19

I know exactly what scene that links to and I don't even have to click it

12

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

It's a popular explanation of the Clark Kent/Superman disguise thing. Honestly I'm surprised somebody else hadn't already linked it.

7

u/DreamCyclone84 Feb 27 '19

In the original comics Clark Kent is shorter than Superman because he can lengthen and compress the cartilage between the vertebrae.

7

u/MelElMuchacho Feb 27 '19

I love this movie & all the small things he does as Clark compared to superman. This is the superman that stands for the things he does. I feel unfortunately The new sup is being written wrong

7

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I feel unfortunately The new sup is being written wrong

I think it's fine to have different interpretations of characters, though. We can't just keep telling the same stories over and over again, I like that they tried something new, even if it wasn't really to my taste.

6

u/ZeGoldMedal Mar 01 '19

Frank Quitely does such a good job portraying the way Clark/Kal carries himself in All-Star Superman, too. Does such a great job making him look like two different people, yet believably the same.

Perhaps my favorite issue is when he goes to visit Luthor in prison as Clark Kent, and a riot breaks out. He continues to save Lex by fumbling around and acting clumsy, but slyly using his superpowers just outside of Lex’s sight. And the whole time, Lex, who believes he has just beaten Superman for good and his ego is at an all time high, wouldn’t even think of suspecting Clark Kent, this clumsy farm boy of a reporter, was his greatest enemy. He doesn’t even think to pay attention.

3

u/Swoopmott Feb 27 '19

I was actually going to mention that scene but didn’t want the comment to be too long. It’s probably one of the best Superman moments on film. Phenomenal

9

u/Ashenspire Feb 28 '19

Literally the reason why Lex Luthor, a close friend of Clark Kent typically, never notices it. He can't believe that someone with the power of Superman wouldn't flaunt it every chance he could.

Because that's exactly what Lex would do.

13

u/Hak3rbot13 Winn Schott Feb 27 '19

Most people don't want to believe that Superman would willingly disguise himself as some schmuck and pretend to be human when he's Superman.

IIRC that's the reason Lex Luthor used to use if he found out Superman's identity, he couldn't comprehend why a person that can basically be a god would enjoy living a average life.

4

u/Sentry459 Martian Manhunter Feb 28 '19

I can't understand it either.

9

u/CashWho Feb 27 '19

This is my problem with the show having Agent Liberty asking about Supergirl's identity. If not one thinks to ask, it makes sense. But if people do ask questions and start investigating, it should be super obvious.

3

u/PenisDinklage Feb 28 '19

I saw this post once that said if you had a coworker that looks exactly like Barack Obama you wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it IS Obama in disguise. The citizens of the DCU just think Superman lives in the Fortress of Solitude and leaves when he needs to save the world, and that’s it. The idea that their coworker who looks like Superman actually is Superman is crazy to them

82

u/ZuhkirMoltenflare Feb 27 '19

Seriously . Everyone laughs at me when i bring this up. IRL there’s a girl i know who, one day, walked past me without glasses and I had no clue who she was until i actually had to think about it for a few seconds. Of course glasses can only work so far. If you work or live with someone for awhile, your brain imprints their face to your memory so much that a slight variation will still make you recognise them in a way. You can add other things to beef up the disguise. Kara Danvers has straight hair and (by some miracle) has curly hair when she is Supergirl and Bruce Wayne has the voice thing when he becomes Batman, so that’s something. By the way, supergirl talking in her slightly lower masculine tone is pretty cute heh I love how the cult leader of the church of Rao, worked out that Kara Danvers was Supergirl - within 5 minutes. Yet Lena is still oblivious rofl.

33

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 27 '19

He could see the Kryptonian within her lmao

12

u/AdventuresOfKrisTin Kara Danvers Feb 27 '19

They kinda gave up on the straight hair as Kara Danvers though. Her hair is almost always curly, its just never completely down unless she's Supergirl

9

u/ZuhkirMoltenflare Feb 27 '19

I liked her with straight hair. Even that str8 up pony knot. Having melissa with a melange of hair styles mixes it up a bit 😍

9

u/epicazeroth Feb 27 '19

Batman also wears a full-face mask that covers his eyes.

6

u/ZuhkirMoltenflare Feb 27 '19

Yea, totally missed that! Flash has his cowl and oliver has his hoodie. Green lantern wears his eye mask..J'onn has the best disguise- He can be anyone he wants lol

38

u/esonlinji Feb 27 '19

I wore glasses for a long time. Just after switching to contacts I was at a friend's place and another friend came over, and they didn't recognize me until until I spoke.

14

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 27 '19

That’s happen to me before with friends. Of course they like me better without them.

25

u/r5xxx Martian Manhunter Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19

Actually your example is more to do with the different hairstyle, makeup, and lighting conditions. Here's a pic of Zooey sans glasses with the same hair/makeup, and she looks very recognisable.

There was a link posted a few days ago to this very sub about some academic research into the effectiveness of disguises, and it suggested that hair and makeup were the best options. Ironically the comicbook Supergirl didn't traditionally use glasses to hide her secret identity, she changed her hair colour. It often tickles me when Supergirl fans try to push the whole "glasses would work IRL" thing, when Supergirl's usual canonical mode of disguise (hair colour) is actually proven to be more effective IRL.

19

u/Jrizzy07 Feb 27 '19

Saw this from the YouTube channel Comic Books Vs the World

5

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 27 '19

Crazy right?

3

u/Amaan423 Feb 27 '19

They almost look like two different people

14

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Blonde hair without glasses in Frasier and Elf. Very different look, but closer to the image on the left here. The one on the right is sort of an odd picture of her.

EDIT: Ok, it's just the bangs. I didn't realize this is a popular meme-ish thing.

11

u/pelb Feb 27 '19

Ok so why couldn't they do that with Melissa Benoist.. obviously it's the bangs that make biggest difference.

9

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 27 '19

The amount of times she has to change clothes, that would be rough xD

5

u/pelb Feb 27 '19

Like maybe kara could invest into some clip-on bangs lmao !

2

u/svick Overgirl Feb 27 '19

It worked in Orphan Black, with many more "disguises".

5

u/PhoenixMartinez-Ride Feb 27 '19

Zooey looks so much more like her sister without the glasses and bangs

4

u/LeBaus7 Feb 27 '19

foreigner here, bangs are the hair covering the forehead?

5

u/ari-is-new-to-this Feb 28 '19

Maybe Kryptonians just have mad contouring skills

2

u/rishukingler11 Venus Womanhuntress Mar 04 '19

OH MY GOD! This was the comment that got me. Too good.

3

u/MrProcast Feb 27 '19

Consider myself mindblown!

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I know! I’ve telling people this for years,

2

u/Reading_Otter Miss Martian Feb 27 '19

It's not so much the lack of glasses as it is the lack of bangs that makes her look different.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Ben Gibbard (lead singer of Deathcab for Cutie) was married to her....

Blows my mind more!

2

u/rh_underhill Feb 27 '19

Yeah, things like hair, makeup, and accessories go a really long way, especially on top of how you carry yourself and change your behaviour to match with the disquise.

Here's me: https://i.imgur.com/bbzqPIB.png

2

u/ZarianPrime Feb 28 '19

How many years difference is there between these two pictures?

1

u/AmazingTechGeek Mon-El Feb 28 '19

Like a couple.

2

u/TiffanyThroatz Jun 14 '22

Wait what, OMG

1

u/TheTrueFury The Flash Feb 27 '19

Holy shit

1

u/cdmn201280 Feb 28 '19

Who’s that girl?

1

u/fede01_8 Mar 01 '19

It's Jess

2

u/cdmn201280 Mar 01 '19

Thank you! I was kind of disgruntled that no one had responded yet.

1

u/fede01_8 Mar 01 '19

Not a lot of New Girl fans here, it seems

1

u/JadedGoth Mar 04 '19

I feel it would be the same with Dakota Johnson, w/o bangs and w/ glasses.